Rob Franklin's debut novel, Great Black Hope, draws heavily on his experiences in New York and Atlanta. The protagonist, Smith, faces arrest for cocaine possession, prompting a deep exploration of personal anxieties surrounding identity and societal perceptions. Franklin emphasizes the struggles with Black respectability politics, stemming from his own childhood experiences. He plans future writing that branches into themes of tech and transhumanism, examining the implications of artificially extending life and the question of meaning in art.
"People have asked me I think what [writing] my book gave me, and a lot of is clearing the pipes."
"I was really interested in looking at how the label of 'addict' being applied to him would call into stark relief all of these larger questions around how he's being perceived..."
"I'm really interested in tech and transhumanism, the idea that we can use technology to artificially extend life."
"But the most powerful people in the world are contending with mortality being like 'What if we indefinitely extended this thing but robbed it of all its poetry?'"
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